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Then we shall accept you saying the Father is the cause, or when you say this, (15) managing the argument with discretion, for the time being we refuse this also; for things that are always, as has been said, united and always existing in the same way cannot be causes of one another. Do not then imagine that the Father ever pre-existed the Son, and you will call him neither first nor greater than the Son; for that which pre-existed would be called first of that which was begotten or proceeded or was made from it, but he who neither pre-exists, nor was ever born or became first of the co-eternal and co-unoriginate Son, but is wholly in the whole Son of equal honor, as also the Son is in the whole consubstantial Father, how will he be called first of the co-eternal? But if you say the Father is the cause of the Son, I say so too, unless you somehow introduce the suspicion that there was once God alone, when there was no Son, and that he begot him later, becoming the cause of his existence, which leads you far from God and the truth, as one who is impious, and places you with the impious who say the Son was begotten by the Father; for to even think this alone is of all atheism and impiety.

For we say that the father is the cause of the son who is born in the case of physical birth; but in the case of the divine and non-existent existence and unbegotten begetting and unhypostatic hypostasis and super-essential essencing, or what else to say I do not know, he who says first must also name a second and a third, which has no significance at all to be spoken of in the all-holy Trinity. For to measure the immeasurable and to speak the unspeakable and to utter the unutterable is precarious and dangerous. Therefore, in the case of the ineffable and divine begetting of God the Word, we say the Father is the cause of the Son, as mind of word and spring of stream and root of its branches, but in no way first, so that we do not increase the number, dividing the indivisible and one divinity into three gods. For it is not possible to conceive or to speak of first, or second, or third, not greater, not lesser, (16) in the indivisible and unconfused Trinity; for the things of the divine and super-essential nature are in every way unutterable and ineffable and incomprehensible and inaccessible to the human mind. But if you wish to exercise the argument in another way and learn how incomprehensible is God who brought all into being out of non-being, even if you place the Spirit first—if indeed it is permissible to theologize in this way—before the Son and the Father, you will find in him the whole connaturality of the co-eternal as consubstantial ones. And see how incomprehensible are the things of the divine nature to us humans. ‘God,’ it says, ‘is Spirit,’ and again: ‘Now the Lord is the Spirit.’ If, therefore, ‘God is Spirit and the Lord is the Spirit,’ where here is the fatherhood and the sonship, that you, O new theologian, should give and say and number for me a first and a greater in the divine and incomprehensible nature.

John, theologizing, said, ‘In the beginning was the Word,’ and not the Father. But you, initiated into things deeper than this by Wisdom itself, Jesus, give to us and to the whole world the first in the Father, so that you might also show the Son as second to him and the Holy Spirit in turn as third, preaching to us another gospel as some other theologian, deeper than the former one and more intimate with the Son of God? What blasphemy! How, tell me, you who insidiously dogmatize tritheism for us, did the theological voice, he who rested on Christ's breast, not say: ‘In the beginning was the Father,’ but ‘In the beginning was the Word’? And why did he not say the Son, but the Word, if not to teach us that neither was God the Word known as Son by anyone before he came down and was incarnate, nor God as Father? Not that the tri-hypostatic divinity which brought all things forth did not exist, but that the mystery of the economy had not yet been made known. For after the incarnation of God the Word, God was also made known as Father to us the faithful (17) and the incarnate God the Word for our sakes as Son of God, according to what was spoken by the Father from above; for he says: ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to him.’ And the Son: ‘Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you,’ and again:

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τηνικαῦτα τό αἴτιον λέγειν σε τόν Πατέρα δεξόμεθα, ἤ τοῦτό σου λέγοντος, (15) τόν λόγον οἰκονομοῦντες ἐν κρίσει, τό γε νῦν ἔχον καί αὐτό παραιτούμεθα· τά γάρ ἀεί, ὥσπερ εἴρηται, ἡνωμένα καί ἀεί ὡσαύτως ὄντα ἀλλήλων αἴτια εἶναι οὐ δύνανται. Μή δή ἐννοήσῃς προϋπάρξαι ποτέ τοῦ Υἱοῦ τόν Πατέρα καί οὔτε πρῶτον οὔτε μείζονα καλέσεις αὐτόν τοῦ Υἱοῦ· τό γάρ προϋπάρξαν πρῶτον ἄν κληθήσεται τοῦ ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεννηθέντος ἤ προελθόντος ἤ ποιηθέντος, ὁ δέ μήτε προών, μήτε ποτέ γεγονώς ἤ γενόμενος πρῶτος τοῦ συναϊδίου καί συνανάρχου Υἱοῦ, ἀλλ᾿ ὅλος ὤν ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ ὁμοτίμῳ Υἱῷ, ὡς καί ὁ Υἱός ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ ὁμοουσίῳ Πατρί, πῶς πρῶτος τοῦ συναϊδίου κληθήσεται; Εἰ δέ αἴτιον λέγεις τοῦ Υἱοῦ τόν Πατέρα, φημί κἀγώ, εἰ μή που ὑπόνοιαν ἐμποιεῖς ὅτι ἦν ποτε ὁ Θεός μόνος, ὅτε οὐκ ἦν Υἱός, καί ὅτι ἐγέννησεν αὐτόν ὕστερον αἴτιος γενόμενος τῆς αὐτοῦ ὑπάρξεως, ὅπερ σε πόρρω τοῦ Θεοῦ καί τῆς ἀληθείας ἀπάγει, ὡς ἀσεβοῦντα, καί μετά τῶν λεγόντων ἀσεβῶν τόν Υἱόν ὑπό τοῦ Πατρός γεγενῆσθαι ποιεῖ· τοῦτο γάρ καί τό μόνον ἐννοῆσαι πάσης ἀθεότητος καί ἀσεβείας ἐστίν.

Αἴτιον γάρ τοῦ γεννωμένου υἱοῦ τόν πατέρα εἶναι ἐπί τῆς σωματικῆς γεννήσεως λέγομεν· ἐπί δέ τῆς θείας καί ἀνυπάρκτου ὑπάρξεως καί ἀγεννήτου γεννήσεως καί ἀνυποστάτου ὑποστάσεως καί ὑπερουσίου οὐσιώσεως, ἤ τί ἕτερον εἴπω οὐκ οἶδα, ὁ πρῶτον λέγων ἀνάγκη καί δεύτερον ὀνομάσαι καί τρίτον, ὅπερ ἐν τῇ παναγίᾳ Τριάδι ἔμφασιν ὅλως οὐκ ἔχει λέγεσθαι. Τό γάρ μετρεῖν τά ἀμέτρητα καί τά ἄρρητα λέγειν καί τά ἄφθεγκτα φθέγγεσθαι ἐπισφαλές ὑπάρχει καί ἐπικίνδυνον. Τοιγαροῦν καί ἐπί τῆς ἀρρήτου καί θείας τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου γεννήσεως αἴτιον μέν τοῦ Υἱοῦ λέγομεν τόν Πατέρα, ὡς νοῦν λόγου καί πηγήν ῥεύματος καί ῥίζαν τῶν κλάδων αὐτῆς, πρῶτον δέ οὐδαμῶς, ἵνα μή τόν ἀριθμόν πλεονάσωμεν, εἰς τρεῖς θεούς τήν ἀδιαίρετον καί μίαν θεότητα διαιροῦντες. Οὔτε γάρ πρῶτον, οὔτε δεύτερον, οὔτε τρίτον, οὐ μεῖζον, οὐκ ἔλασσον, (16) ἔστιν ἐννοῆσαι ἤ εἰπεῖν ἐν τῇ ἀδιαιρέτῳ καί ἀσυγχύτῳ Τριάδι· ἄφθεγκτα γάρ πάντῃ καί ἄρρητα καί ἀκατανόητα τά τῆς θείας καί ὑπερουσίου φύσεως καί ἀνθρωπίνῳ νοΐ ἀκατάληπτα. Εἰ βούλει δέ καί ἄλλως γυμνάσαι τόν λόγον καί μαθεῖν ὡς ἀκατάληπτός ἐστιν ὁ ἐκ τοῦ μή ὄντος τό πᾶν οὐσιώσας Θεός, κἄν τό Πνεῦμα προτάξῃς, εἴ γε καί οὕτως θεολογεῖν ἔξεστι, τοῦ Υἱοῦ καί τοῦ Πατρός, ὅλην ἐν αὐτῷ εὑρήσεις καί τῶν συναϊδίων ὡς ὁμοουσίων τήν συμφυΐαν. Καί ὅρα ὡς ἀκατάληπτα τά τῆς θείας φύσεως τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἡμῖν. "Πνεῦμα, φησίν, ὁ Θεός" καί πάλιν· "Τό δέ πνεῦμα ὁ Κύριός ἐστιν". Εἰ οὖν πνεῦμα "Θεός καί τό πνεῦμα ὁ Κύριός ἐστι, ποῦ ἡ πατρότης ἐνταῦθα καί ἡ υἱότης, ἵνα καί πρῶτον καί μεῖζόν μοι ἐν τῇ θείᾳ καί ἀκαταλήπτῳ φύσει, ὦ σύ, καινέ θεολόγε, διδῷς καί λέγῃς καί ἀριθμῇς.

Ἰωάννης "Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος" ἔφη θεολογῶν, καί οὐχ ὁ Πατήρ. Σύ δέ, καί τούτου βαθύτερα ὑπό τῆς αὐτοσοφίας, Ἰησοῦ, μυσταγωγηθείς, δίδως ἡμῖν καί τῷ κόσμῳ παντί τό πρῶτον ἐν τῷ Πατρί, ἵνα καί δεύτερον τούτου τόν Υἱόν ἀποδείξῃς καί τρίτον αὖθις τό Πνεῦμα τό Ἅγιον, κηρύσσων ἡμῖν ὡς ἄλλος τις θεολόγος τοῦ πρώην βαθύτερός τε καί τῷ Υἱῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ οἰκειότερος ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον; Τῆς βλασφημίας! Πῶς, εἰπέ, ὁ τήν τριθεΐαν ἡμῖν δογματίζων ὑπούλως, οὐκ εἶπεν ἡ θεολόγος φωνή, ὁ ἐπιστήθιος τοῦ Χριστοῦ· "Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Πατήρ", ἀλλ᾿ "Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος"; ∆ιά τί δέ οὐκ εἶπεν ὁ Υἱός, ἀλλ᾿ ὁ Λόγος, ἤ ἵνα διδάξῃ ἡμᾶς ὅτι οὔτε Υἱός ἀπό τινος ἐγνωρίζετο πρό τοῦ κατελθεῖν καί σαρκωθῆναι τόν Θεόν Λόγον, οὔτε Πατήρ ὁ Θεός; Οὐχ ὅτι οὐκ ἦν ἡ τά πάντα παραγαγοῦσα τρισυπόστατος θεότης, ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι οὔπω ἦν γνωρισθέν τό τῆς οἰκονομίας μυστήριον. Μετά γάρ τήν ἐνανθρώπησιν τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου καί Πατήρ ὁ Θεός καί Πατήρ ἐγνωρίσθη ἡμῖν τοῖς πιστοῖς (17) καί Υἱός Θεοῦ ὁ σαρκωθείς δι᾿ ἡμᾶς Θεός Λόγος κατά τό ὑπό τοῦ Πατρός ἄνωθεν εἰρημένον· φησί γάρ· "Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ Υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός· αὐτοῦ ἀκούετε". Καί ὁ Υἱός· "Πάτερ δίκαιε, καί ὁ κόσμος σε οὐκ ἔγνω, ἐγώ δέ σε ἔγνων" καί αὖθις·